NC High School Student Airlifted after Collision with Train

June 11--Shortly before 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, emergency dispatch broadcasted the message to the county -- a train struck a vehicle at 405 Walston Ave.

Kinston Department of Public Safety firefighters, police and Lenoir County EMS immediately descended on the scene in which a freight train's vicious collision with a full-size pickup truck sent the vehicle, tumbling and torn, down an embankment next to the tracks.

Shortly thereafter firefighters and EMS personnel immobilized the truck's driver -- North Lenoir High School student Riley Sasser -- placed him on a gurney and then in an ambulance to Lenoir Memorial Hospital.

Sasser was unresponsive at the scene and subsequently airlifted for treatment at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville after arriving at LMH.

According to a KDPS release, the truck was heading south and the Norfolk Southern train moving west when the incident occurred.

Word spread quickly throughout the community and those who know Sasser expressed their support for his recovery.

Hugo Volunteer Fire Department posted on its Facebook page around 2 p.m., "Praying for one of our own, Riley Sasser. Please keep him in your prayers. He has been airlifted to Greenville."

Sasser, who turned 16 on Thursday, had an outpouring of well-wishes on Twitter as people showed they were thinking about him with the hashtag #P4RS, "Pray for Riley Sasser."

According to KDPS late Tuesday afternoon, witnesses are being interviewed and the incident remains under investigation.

Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 and Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.

Copyright 2014 - The Free Press, Kinston, N.C.